Commercial spaceports — a window of opportunity?

The feasibility of building commercial spaceports is being actively investigated in several countries. Potential benefits include boosting economic development and assisting the commercial launch industry. This report finds, however, that commercial spaceport development will probably not be capable of generating a large enough return on investment to attract private sector involvement without significant government assistance. It is also unlikely that the market for large launch vehicles will support spaceport development; however, small satellites may offer better prospects.     

Long-term manipulations of intact microbial mat communities in a greenhouse collaboratory: simulating earth's present and past field environments

Photosynthetic microbial mat communities were obtained from marine hypersaline saltern ponds, maintained in a greenhouse facility, and examined for the effects of salinity variations. Because these microbial mats are considered to be useful analogs of ancient marine communities, they offer insights about evolutionary events during the >3 billion year time interval wherein mats co-evolved with Earth's lithosphere and atmosphere. Although photosynthetic mats can be highly dynamic and exhibit extremely high activity, the mats in the present study have been maintained for >1 year with relatively minor changes. The major groups of microorganisms, as assayed using microscopic, genetic, and biomarker methodologies, are essentially the same as those in the original field samples. Field and greenhouse mats were similar with respect to rates of exchange of oxygen and dissolved inorganic carbon across the mat-water interface, both during the day and at night. Field and greenhouse mats exhibited similar rates of efflux of methane and hydrogen. Manipulations of salinity in the water overlying the mats produced changes in the community that strongly resemble those observed in the field. A collaboratory testbed and an array of automated features are being developed to support remote scientific experimentation with the assistance of intelligent software agents. This facility will permit teams of investigators the opportunity to explore ancient environmental conditions that are rare or absent today but that might have influenced the early evolution of these photosynthetic ecosystems.     

Structure of the migrating diurnal tide in the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM)

As part of an ongoing effort to understand the migrating diurnal tide generated by the NCAR Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model, version 3 (WACCM3), we compare the WACCM3 migrating diurnal tide in the horizontal wind and temperature fields to similar results from the Global Scale Wave Model (GSWM). The WACCM3 diurnal tidal wind fields are also compared to tropical radar measurements at Kauai (22°N, 200.2°E) and Rarotonga (21.3°S, 199.7°E). The large-scale features of the WACCM3 results, such as the global spatial structure and the semiannual amplitude variation are in general agreement with past tidal studies; however, several differences do exist. WACCM3 exhibits a much higher degree of hemispheric asymmetry, lower overall amplitudes around the equinoxes, and peaks which are more confined in latitude when compared with the GSWM. Factors which may contribute to such differences between WACCM3 and GSWM are the solar heating profiles from ozone and water vapor, dissipation, and the zonal mean zonal winds. We find that the internally generated heating in WACCM3 and eddy dissipation values are both smaller than the values specified in the GSWM; the eddy dissipation fields and zonal mean zonal winds of the two models also display measurable differences in spatial structure. Comparisons with radar data show several differences in spatial and seasonal structure. In particular, the diurnal tide zonal winds in WACCM3 above Kauai are considerably larger in amplitude than those observed in the radar data, due to contributions from nonmigrating tidal components including wave numbers eastward 1 through 3, westward 2, and stationary components, which interfere constructively with the migrating component around equinox in WACCM3.     

A quantitative evaluation of the iron-sulfur world and its relevance to life's origins

The significance of W?chtersh?user's iron-sulfur world to the origin of life and the limits to its notional autocatalytic cycles are examined in kinetic simulations of the chain polymerization sequence: primitive materials-->amino acids-->oligomers. The simulations were run for the formation of all oligomers up to the 20-mer over a 1 Gy interval from the end of the period of heavy bombardment, during which period life emerged. Upper-limit rate constant estimates developed from the studies of Huber and W?chtersh?user were employed. The simulations showed that oligomer production consistent with life's start within that interval emerges only with an autocatalyst exhibiting a catalytic proficiency comparable to that of contemporary enzymes. The simulations, moreover, ignored likely thermodynamic and statistical burdens which, if included, would have led to the need for catalytic capacities well in excess of those in present-day enzymes. Prebiotic oligomers with such levels of activity are clearly not likely, and it is apparent that the iron-sulfur scheme could not have played a role in life's beginnings.     

Solar flux and its variations

We present data on the solar irradiance as derived from a number of sources. An attempt was made to bring these data onto a uniform scale. The results are presented in Table IV and Figure 6. Summation of fluxes at all wavelengths yields a figure of 1357.826 W m^-2 for the solar constant. Estimates are made of the solar flux variations due to flares, active regions (slowly varying component), solar rotation and the 11-year cycle.Solar activity does not produce a significant variation in the value of the solar constant. Nevertheless, variations in the X-ray and extreme ultraviolet portions of the solar flux may be several orders of magnitude during solar activity, especially at times of major flares. It is well established that these short wavelength flux enhancements cause significant changes in the terrestrial ionosphere.     

CUTTING TEMPERATURE OF CBN TOOLS WHEN MACHINING STEEL OF MEDIUM HARDNESS

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A 12 year comparison of MIDAS and IRI 2007 ionospheric Total Electron Content

Data assimilation in conventional meteorological applications uses measurements in conjunction with a physical model. In the case of the ionised region of the upper atmosphere, the ionosphere, assimilation techniques are much less mature. The empirical model known as the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) could be used to augment data-sparse regions in an ionospheric now-cast and forecast system. In doing so, it is important that it does not introduce systematic biases to the result. Here, the IRI model is compared to ionospheric observations from the Global Positioning System satellites over Europe and North America. Global Positioning System data are processed into hour-to-hour monthly averages of vertical Total Electron Content using a tomographic technique. A period of twelve years, from January 1998 to December 2009, is analysed in order to capture variations over the whole solar cycle. The study shows that the IRI model underestimates Total Electron Content in the daytime at solar maximum by up to 37% compared to the monthly average of GPS tomographic images, with the greatest differences occurring at the equinox. IRI shows good agreement at other times. Errors in TEC are likely due to peak height and density inaccuracies. IRI is therefore a suitable model for specification of monthly averages of Total Electron Content and can be used to initialise a data assimilation process at times away from solar maximum. It may be necessary to correct for systematic deviations from IRI at solar maximum, and to incorporate error estimation into a data assimilation scheme.     

Evaluating the Wind-Induced Mechanical Noise on the InSight Seismometers

The SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structures) instrument onboard the InSight mission to Mars is the critical instrument for determining the interior structure of Mars, the current level of tectonic activity and the meteorite flux. Meeting the performance requirements of the SEIS instrument is vital to successfully achieve these mission objectives. Here we analyse in-situ wind measurements from previous Mars space missions to understand the wind environment that we are likely to encounter on Mars, and then we use an elastic ground deformation model to evaluate the mechanical noise contributions on the SEIS instrument due to the interaction between the Martian winds and the InSight lander. Lander mechanical noise maps that will be used to select the best deployment site for SEIS once the InSight lander arrives on Mars are also presented. We find the lander mechanical noise may be a detectable signal on the InSight seismometers. However, for the baseline SEIS deployment position, the noise is expected to be below the total noise requirement \(>97~\%\) of the time and is, therefore, not expected to endanger the InSight mission objectives.     

Bringing life sciences to life

A brief review of the status of space life sciences research is provided with an emphasis on the contributions this research has made to life here on Earth. Physiological effects of weightlessness are discussed along with methods of prevention or treatment. Several technologies are described which have resulted in advances in improved health care and in other industries. In addition, the impact of space life sciences research on women's health issues and on future space travel are discussed.